Auld Lang Syne - Robert Burns

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne!

The Gospel in Rhyme - Edward A. Morris

Man is depraved with no will to be saved.

A Refugee Song - Otieno Amisi

I am a refugee
With no identity
And no nationality
No dignity
In this unreality
Simply a digit
In the devil's computer roll
I want a new life

Preserve Your Word, O Saviour - Andreas Gryphius

Preserve your Word, O Saviour,
To us this latter day,
And let your kingdom flourish;
Enlarge your Church, we pray.
Oh, keep our faith from failing;
Keep hope’s bright star aglow.
Let nothing from truth turn us
While living here below.

Christmas - Toru Dutt

The sky is dark, the snow descends:
Ring, bells, ring out your merriest chime!

B. C.: A. D. - U.A. Fanthorpe

This was the moment when Before
Turned into After, and the future’s
Uninvented timekeepers presented arms.

To Spain - José Zorilla

Any a tear, O country, hath been shed,
Many a stream of brother's blood been poured,
Many a hero brave lhath found his bed,
In thy deep sepulchres, how richly stored!

And this I dreamt, and this I dream - Arseny Tarkovsky

And this I dreamt, and this I dream,
And some time this I will dream again,
And all will be repeated, all be re-embodied,
You will dream everything I have seen in dream.

How do you - Kabir

How do you,
Asks the chief of police,
Patrol a city

The counsels of the bird - Jalal al-Din Rumi

A man captured a bird by wiles and snares;
The bird said to him, "noble sir,
In your time you have eaten many oxen and sheep,
And likewise sacrificed many camels;
You have never become satisfied with their meat,
So you will not be satisfied with my flesh.
Let me go, that I may give you three counsels,
Whence you will see whether I am wise or foolish.
The first of my counsels shall be given on your wrist,
The second on your well-plastered roof,
And the third I will give you from the top of a tree.
On hearing all three you will deem yourself happy.
As regards the counsel on your wrist, 'tis this,
'Believe not foolish assertions of any one!'"

Street in Agrigentum - Salvatore Quasimodo

There is still the wind that I remember
firing the manes of horses, racing,
slanting, across the plains,
the wind that stains and scours the sandstone,

Walking Both Sides of an Invisible Border - Alootook Ipellie

It Was Not 'Jajai-ja-jiijaaa Anymore - But 'Amen'

The Angler - Franz Grillparzer

Below lies the lake hushed and tranquil,
  And I sit here with idle hands,
And gaze at the frolicking fishes
  Which glide to and fro o'er the sands.

In two languages - George Gömöri

Daily I switch languages - call them masks:
At times a mask can feel like your own skin.
At other times, the spirit has to struggle,
Saved only by the tongue it calls its own.

The Current Of Time's River - Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin

The current of time's river
Will carry off all human deeds
And sink into oblivion
All peoples, kingdoms and their kings.

The Ballad Of The Proverbs - François Villon

So rough the goat will scratch, it cannot sleep.
So often goes the pot to the well that it breaks.
So long you heat iron, it will glow;
so heavily you hammer it, it shatters.
So good is the man as his praise;
so far he will go, and he's forgotten;
so bad he behaves, and he's despised.
So loud you cry Christmas, it comes.

I Had a Comrade - Johann Ludwig Uhland

I had one faithful comrade
'Ere we heard the trumpet's call,
And we pledged our hearts forever
In battle joined together
To beat the foe or fall.

Under the Linden-tree - Walter von der Vogelweide

Under the linden-tree
Upon the heath,
There I lay with him.—Alas,
When you go there, you’ll see
The flowers beneath
Crushed and trodden with the grass.
By the forest in the dale,
Tandarady!
Sweetly sang the nightingale.

A Shell - Rubén Darío

I found upon the shore a golden shell,
Massive, and with the daintiest pearls embossed;
Europa touched it with her hands divine

Love is rest - Eeva Kilpi

Love is rest.
Actually, the only rest humans have.

Imitation - Giacomo Leopardi

Wandering from the parent bough,
Little, trembling leaf,
Whither goest thou?

The Sower - Toru Dutt

Sitting in a porchway cool,
Sunlight, I see, dying fast,
Twilight hastens on to rule.

A Lesson In Drawing - Nizar Qabbani

My son places his paint box in front of me
and asks me to draw a bird for him.
Into the colour gray I dip the brush
and draw a square with locks and bars.
Astonishment fills his eyes:
'… But this is a prison, Father,
Don't you know, how to draw a bird?'
And I tell him: 'Son, forgive me.
I've forgotten the shapes of birds.'

Who Can Explain Why We Love It (Picking Mulberries) - Ouyang Xiu

Who can explain why we love it—West Lake is good.
The beautiful scene is without time,
Flying canopies chase each other,
Greedy to be among the flowers, drunk, with a jade cup.

Lalla Ruk - Vasily Andreyevich Zhukovsky

Dearest dream, my soul's enchantment
Lovely guest from heav'n above,
Most benevolent attender
To the earthly realm below,
You gave me blissful satisfaction
Momentary but complete:
Bringing with you happy tidings -
Like a herald from the skies.

Nakedly Obvious No. 20 - Eduardo Milán

There's a worked void:
from this angle you see a butterfly
that seems to come out of nowhere, fine
that wingbeat corresponds
to a monarch

An Hymn To The Evening - Phillis Wheatley

Soon as the sun forsook the eastern main
The pealing thunder shook the heav'nly plain;
Majestic grandeur! From the zephyr's wing,
Exhales the incense of the blooming spring.

Letter from a contract worker - António Jacinto

I wanted to write you a letter
my love,
a letter that would tell
of this desire
to see you
of this fear
of losing you
of this more than benevolence that I feel
of this indefinable ill that pursues me
of this yearning to which I live in total surrender …

Nightingales, a sigh, a whisper - Afanasy Afanasevich Fet

Nightingales, a sigh, a whisper
In a shady nook
And the lullaby in silver
Of a lazy brook.

A Preliminary Sketch Concerning a Language - Afzal Ahmed Syed

In your language every line begins from an opposite end.
The pronunciation of its words changes from day to night
and their orthography changes with the change of seasons.

The Cricket - Arseny Tarkovsky

To tell the truth, I'm kin
          to the house cricket.
I sing a secret song
          above the oven's ash.
For me, one brings
          the water to a fierce boil,
For me, another
          prepares a hearth of gold.

Beauty And Toil - Josh Malihabadi

There she sweats on the road, a beauteous, restless lass,
In scorching sun she breaks the stones, her bangles clink and clash.

Ballade - François Villon

I know flies in milk
I know the man by his clothes
I know fair weather from foul
I know the apple by the tree
I know the tree when I see the sap
I know when all is one
I know who labors and who loafs
I know everything but myself.

The Mystery - Amergin Glúingel

I am the wind which breathes upon the sea,
I am the wave of the ocean,

Children of Our Age - Wislawa Szymborska

We are children of our age,
it's a political age.

Are you looking for me? - Kabir

Are you looking for me? I am in the next seat.
My shoulder is against yours.

The Woman and the Flame - Aimé Césaire

A bit of light that descends the springhead of a gaze
twin shadow of the eyelash and the rainbow on a face
and round about
who goes there angelically
ambling

Anthem - Ahmad Shamlu

Before being turned to ashes
 by the wrath of the thunderbolt,
    he had forced the steer of the tempest
         to kneel before his might.

Chizama the poet - Nontsizi Mgqwetho

Sir, Editor of our Umtetell,
long life to you,
grandson of heroes who fell at Hoho.
Mercy! Go, Gatyeni,
we'll follow you.

Akhenaton’s Song/ Prayer/ Psalm - Dennis Vincent Brutus

Light gleaming through trees
light above sunset hills
light glowing golden
Rhodesian-Zimbabwean red

Village Song - Sarojini Naidu

Honey, child, honey, child, whither are you going?
Would you cast your jewels all to the breezes blowing?
Would you leave the mother who on golden grain has fed you?
Would you grieve the lover who is riding forth to wed you?

Wild Geese - Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.

From the Far West - Barcroft Boake

'Tis a song of the Never Never land—
Set to the tune of a scorching gale
        On the sandhills red,
        When the grasses dead
Loudly rustle, and bow the head
To the breath of its dusty hail:

The Buried City - George Sylvester Viereck

My heart is like a city of the gay
 Reared on the ruins of a perished one
 Wherein my dead loves cower from the sun,
White-swathed like kings, the Pharaohs of a day.
Within the buried city stirs no sound,
 Save for the bat, forgetful of the rod,
 Perched on the knee of some deserted god,
And for the groan of rivers underground.

More About People - Ogden Nash

When people aren't asking questions
They're making suggestions

Franz Grillparzer - A Kiss

A hand is to be kissed respectfully,
The forehead solemnly, with friendship,

The Shining Hours (XI) - Emile Verhaeren

How readily delight is aroused in her,
with her eyes of fiery ecstasy,
she who is gentle and resigned
before life in so simple a fashion.

Cups Without Wine - Yehudah HaLevi

Cups without wine are low things

Soft Caramel - Jean Cocteau

Take a young girl.
Fill her with ice and gin
shake it all up to make it androgynous

A Cowherding girl - Mirabai

The plums tasted
sweet to the unlettered desert-tribe girl—

Evening Prayer - Eliza Lee Follen

Great Source of being,
Father all-seeing!
We bow before thee;
Our souls adore thee;
Help us obey thee;
Guide us aright;
Keep us, we pray thee,
Through the long night.

Last News About The Little Box - Vasko Popa

The little box which contains the world
Fell in love with herself
And conceived
Still another little box

An Hour - Czesław Miłosz

Leaves glowing in the sun, zealous hum of bumblebees,
From afar, from somewhere beyond the river, echoes of lingering voices
And the unhurried sounds of a hammer gave joy not only to me.

Look To This Day - Kālidāsa

Look to this day:
For it is life, the very life of life.
In its brief course
Lie all the verities and realities of your existence.
The bliss of growth,
The glory of action,
The splendour of achievement
Are but experiences of time.

I am sorry it is winter now - Osip Emilevich Mandelstam

I am sorry it is winter now,
And you can't hear mosquitoes in the house,
But you reminded yourself
Of the frivolous straw.

The Treasury - Alfonso X El Sabio

The strange intelligence then reached my ears
That in the land of Egypt lived a man,
Who, wise of wit, subjected to his scan
The dark occurrences of uncome years;

God - Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin

O Thou, who's infinite in space,
Alive in ever-moving matter,
Eternal in the flow of time,
God faceless, with a trinity of faces!
Soul unified and omnipresent,
Who needs no place or reason,
Whom none can ever comprehend,
Whose being permeates all things,
Encompassing, creating, guarding,
Thou, called by us God.

Song of the Old Boundary Rider - Vance Palmer

Fat and full of health are the valleys of the Condamine,
There the yellow maize and the green tobacco grow,
Through the little gardens runs the trailing passion-vine,
And softly to the North the white downs flow.

The Boatman - Vasily Andreyevich Zhukovsky

Driven by misfortune's whirlwind,
Having neither oar nor rudder,
By a storm my bark was driven
Out upon the boundless sea.
'midst black clouds a small star sparkled;
'Don't conceal yourself!' I cried;
But it disappeared, unheeding;
And my anchor was lost, too.

Wife - Julian Tuwim

My husband is idle, is dumb and spends money.
He either stands still at the window or runs about town like a bunny.

Rose of roses and flower of flowers - Alfonso X El Sabio

1.
Rose of beauty and fine appearance
And flower of happiness and pleasure,
lady of most merciful bearing,
And Lord for relieving all woes and cares;
Rose of roses and flower of flowers,
Lady of ladies, Lord of lords.

I, Being Born a Woman and Distressed - Edna St. Vincent Millay

I, being born a woman and distressed
By all the needs and notions of my kind,

Friend In The Desolate Time - Erik Johan Stagnelius

Friend, in the desolate time, when your soul is enshrouded in darkness
When, in a deep abyss, memory and feeling die out,

Biscuit Of The Day - Ibn Jakh

On the morning they left
we said goodbye
filled with sadness
for the absence to come.

Explosion - Delmira Agustini

If life were love, how blessed it would be!
I want more life so to love! Now I feel
A thousand years of ideas are not worth
One blue minute of sentiment.

Like a brazier’s bronze cinders - Boris Pasternak

Like a brazier’s bronze cinders,
the sleepy garden’s beetles flowing.
Level with me, and my candle,
a flowering world is hanging.

Nostalgia - Kostas Karyotakis

From the depth of good times
our loves greet us bitterly

Ballade 1 - Eustache Deschamps

The stag was very proud of his swiftness,
Of running ten miles in one breath,
And the wild boar was proud to be fierce,
And the sheep praised her woolly fleece,
And the horse its beauty, and the buck was proud
Of crossing the plain at a bound,
And the one proud of strength was the bull,
The ermine in having a furry skin;
And to them all he said from his shell:
The snail will get to Easter just as soon.

Of Him Who Did Salvation Bring - Bernard of Clairvaux

Of Him Who did salvation bring,
I could forever think and sing:
Arise, ye needy, He’ll relieve;
Arise, ye guilty, He’ll forgive.

I Live, I Die, I Burn, I Drown - Delmira Agustini

I live, I die, I burn, I drown
I endure at once chill and cold
Life is at once too soft and too hard
I have sore troubles mingled with joys

Beauty - Anacreon

Horns to bulls wise Nature lends;
Horses she with hoofs defends;

Sur Karyal - Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai

Vai
I belong to that Baloch, to Him I belong
In reverence unmatched
I bow to Him
And kiss the dust He walks upon
Hold Him dearer than the sight of my eyes

Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee - Henry Van Dyke

Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee, God of glory, Lord of love;
Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee, opening to the sun above.
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness; drive the dark of doubt away;
Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day!

Highgate - Eleanor Farjeon

On the Hill there stands a Gate
Where folk go early and come back late.

Love Came to Flora Asking for a Flower - Toru Dutt

Love came to Flora asking for a flower
    That would of flowers be undisputed queen,

Last Of His Tribe - Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Change is the law. The new must oust the old.
I look at you and am back in the long ago,
Old pinnaroo lonely and lost here,
Last of your clan.
Left only with your memories, you sit
And think of the gay throng, the happy people,
The voices and the laughter
All gone, all gone,
And you remain alone.

The Make A Wish Foundation - Kodjo Deynoo

Customarily candle lights are blown
To make a wish, make a wish
Make a wish and blow out the lights

The Ballad which Anne Askew made and sang when she was in Newgate - Anne Askew

Like as the armed knight
Appointed to the field
With this world will I fight
And faith shall be my shield.

Moonlit Night - Joseph Freiherr Von Eichendorff

It was as if heaven

had quietly kissed the earth,

so that earth with its shimmering blossoms

could only dream of heaven.

The Gift - George William Russell

I thought, beloved, to have brought to you
A gift of quietness and ease and peace,
Cooling your brow as with the mystic dew
Dropping from twilight trees.

Sonnet LXVII. A prayer for faith - Michelangelo Buonarroti

There's not on earth a thing more vile and base
      Than, lacking Thee, I feel myself to be:
      For pardon prays my own debility,
      Yearning in vain to lift me to Thy face.

The Season of Loves - Paul Éluard

By the road of ways
In the three-part shadow of troubled sleep
I come to you the double the multiple
as like you as the era of deltas.

Said the West Wind - Isabella Valancy Crawford

I love old earth! Why should I lift my wings,
My misty wings, so high above her breast
That flowers would shake no perfumes from their hearts,
And waters breathe no whispers to the shores?
I love deep places builded high with woods,
Deep, dusk, fern-closed, and starred with nodding blooms,
Close watched by hills, green, garlanded and tall.

An early cricket chirps - Po Chü-i

An early cricket chirps,
then pauses;

The Praise of Spring - Gonzalo de Berceo

I, Gonzalo de Berceo, in the gentle summertide,
Wending upon a pilgrimage, came to a meadow's side;
All green was it and beautiful, with flowers far and wide,--
A pleasant spot, I ween, wherein the traveller might abide.

A Song of Hope - Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Look up, my people,
The dawn is breaking
The world is waking
To a bright new day
When none defame us
No restriction tame us
Nor colour shame us
Nor sneer dismay.

The Lowest Place - Christina Rossetti

Give me the lowest place: not that I dare
     Ask for that lowest place, but Thou hast died
That I might live and share
     Thy glory by Thy side.

Baby's Way - Rabindranath Tagore

If baby only wanted to, he could fly up to heaven this moment.
It is not for nothing that he does not leave us.

His Boat - Catullus

This boat you see, friends, will tell you
that she was the fastest of craft,
not to be challenged for speed
by any vessel afloat, whether
driven by sail or the labour of oars.

Just Keep Quiet and Nobody Will Notice - Ogden Nash

There is one thing that ought to be taught in all the colleges,
Which is that people ought to be taught not to go around always making apologies.

The Dream Called Life - Pedro Calderón de la Barca

A dream it was in which I found myself.
And you that hail me now, then hailed me king,

Prayer and Blessing - Anon

With wonder struck the hero views
The Lord of hosts in ashes smeared ;
He views the crescent in his locks,
And bows before the God revered !

By Moonlight - Nora May French

Is this the world I knew? Beneath the day
It glowed with golden heat, with vivid hues —
Mountains and sky that merged in melting blues
And hazy air that shimmered far away.

Eternity - Robert Herrick

1
O Years! and Age! Farewell:
Behold I go,
Where I do know
Infinity to dwell.

where willy-wagtail wiggles - Lee Emmett

where willy-wagtail wiggles, wobbly winking wombat waits

Song of the Shirt - Thomas Hood

With fingers weary and worn,
With eyelids heavy and red,
A woman sat, in unwomanly rags,
Plying her needle and thread
Stitch! stitch! stitch!
In poverty, hunger, and dirt,
And still with a voice of dolorous pitch
She sang the "Song of the Shirt."

Wrath set my hair bristling - Yueh Fei

By the railing I stand,

Showers have stopped,

I bristle with wrath, my hair uncaging.

To A Cat - Jorge Luis Borges

Mirrors are not more silent
nor the creeping dawn more secretive;
in the moonlight, you are that panther
we catch sight of from afar.

Before the Rain - Madison Cawein

Before the rain, low in the obscure east,
     Weak and morose the moon hung, sickly gray;
Around its disc the storm mists, cracked and creased,
     Wove an enormous web, wherein it lay
     Like some white spider hungry for its prey.

The Little Box - Vasko Popa

The little box gets her first teeth
And her little length
Little width little emptiness
And all the rest she has

Old Song Re-Sung - Katharine Tynan

I saw three ships a-sailing,
A-sailing on the sea,
The first her masts were silver,
Her hull was ivory.
The snows came drifting softly,
And lined her white as wool;
Oh, Jesus, Son of Mary,
Thy Cradle beautiful!

Lighthouse in the Night - Alfonsina Storni

The sky a black sphere,
the sea a black disk.

An Elegy On The Glory Of Her Sex, Mrs Mary Blaize - Oliver Goldsmith

Good people all, with one accord
Lament for Madam Blaize,
Who never wanted a good word,—
From those who spoke her praise.

Under The Poplars - Cesar Vallejo

Like priestly imprisoned poets,
the poplars of blood have fallen asleep.
On the hills, the flocks of Bethlehem
chew arias of grass at sunset.

My Lover Asks Me - Nizar Qabbani

My lover asks me:
"What is the difference between me and the sky?"

Don Quixote - Nazim Hikmet

The knight of immortal youth
at the age of fifty found his mind in his heart
and on July morning went out to capture
the right, the beautiful, the just.

Marriage -

Love springs as lightly from the human heart
    As springs the lovely rose upon the brier,
    Which turns the common hedge to floral fire,
As Love wings Time with rosy-feathered dart.

A Quarter Century Has Passed... - Georgy Ivanov

A quarter century has passed abroad
and hope has become a joke.
The radiant starscape above Nice
is permanently my native sky.

History of Love - Yi Byeong-Ryul

A road curves to the left; the wall beside it is deeply scored with numerous gashes.

The Song My Paddle Sings - E Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake)

West wind, blow from your prairie nest
Blow from the mountains, blow from the west,
The sail is idle, the sailor too;
Oh wind of the west, we wait for you.
Blow, blow!
I have wooed you so,
But never a favour you bestow.
You rock your cradle the hills between,
But scorn to notice my white lateen.

Canadians - Will H. Ogilvie

With arrows on their quarters and with numbers on their hoofs,
With the trampling sound of twenty that re-echoes in the roofs,

A Hymn to God the Father - Ben Jonson

Hear me, O God!
A broken heart
Is my best part.
Use still thy rod,
That I may prove
Therein thy Love.

Molly Odell on her Birthday - Jonathan Odell

Amidst the rage of civil strife,
The orphan's cries, the widow's tears,
This day my rising dawn of life
Has measured five revolving years.

Old Mates - David McKee Wright

I came up to-night to the station, the tramp had been longish and cold,
My swag ain't too heavy to carry, but then I begin to get old.
I came through this way to the diggings -- how long will that be ago now?
Thirty years! how the country has altered, and miles of it under the plough,
And Jack was my mate on the journey -- we both run away from the sea;
He's got on in the world and I haven't, and now he looks sideways on me.

Tea with Germans in 1931 - George Gömöri

— Today I was Thomas Mann's guest.
We had tea together. He has not changed at all,
he is still amiable, healthy, and not so rigid
as my fellow-writers, Móricz and Babits.

Celebrate - Anna Akhmatova

Celebrate our anniversary – can’t you see
tonight the snowy night of our first winter
comes back again in every road and tree—
that winter night of diamantine splendour.

Evening. Anchoring at Hsuan-yang to See Mount Lu - Meng Hao-jan

Lofting sail a thousand miles
I could not find a famous mountain.

Dinner in a Quick Lunch Room - Stephen Vincent Benét

Soup should be heralded with a mellow horn,
Blowing clear notes of gold against the stars;

There is no god, the wicked sayeth - Arthur Hugh Clough

"There is no God," the wicked saith,
      "And truly it's a blessing,
For what He might have done with us
      It's better only guessing."

Moon over Mountain Pass - Li Bai

All the birds have flown up and gone;
A lonely cloud floats leisurely by.
We never tire of looking at each other -
Only the mountain and I.

Three variants - Boris Pasternak

          1

When  in front of you hangs the day with its
Smallest detail-fine or crude-
The intensely hot cracking squirrel-sounds
Do not cease in the resinous wood.

The Leak in the Dike - Phoebe Cary

The good dame looked from her cottage
At the close of the pleasant day,
And cheerily called to her little son
Outside the door at play:
"Come, Peter! come! I want you to go,
While there is still light to see,
To the hut of the blind old man who lives
Across the dike, for me;
And take these cakes I made for him—
They are hot and smoking yet;
You have time enough to go and come
Before the sun has set."

The Last Reservation - Walter Learned

Sullen and dull, in the September day,
On the bank of the river,
They waited the boat that should bear them away
From their poor homes forever.

The Spider and the Fly - Mary Howitt

Will you walk into my parlour?" said the Spider to the Fly,
'Tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy;
The way into my parlour is up a winding stair,
And I've a many curious things to shew when you are there."
Oh no, no," said the little Fly, "to ask me is in vain,
For who goes up your winding stair can ne'er come down again."

Spiders - Christy Birmingham

Spider Legs

My fingers move across the keyboard like spider legs,

Poetry - Eleanor Farjeon

What is Poetry? Who Knows?

Nightfall in the Tropics - Rubén Darío

Here is twilight grey and gloomy
Where the sea its velvet trails;
Out across the heavens roomy
Draw the veils.

To A Lady Asking Him How Long He Would Love Her - Sir George Etherege

It is not, Celia, in our power
  To say how long our love will last;
It may be we within this hour
  May lose those joys we now do taste;
The Blessèd, that immortal be,
From change in love are only free.

Rivers - Ch'on Sang-pyong

The way rivers all flow into the sea
is not the only reason I've been weeping
all day long
up on the hill.

The Genesis of the Butterfly - Victor Hugo

The dawn is smiling on the dew that covers
The tearful roses; lo, the little lovers

Confessio Amantis (Prologue: Motivation and Intent) - John Gower

Of those who wrote before our lives
Their precious legacy survives;

Window song - Nancy Shores

There's a ship lying in and I'd like to be aboard her.
They're loading her with iron rails and cargo for the South.
The water-line is rising with the iron that they're loading,
Down at the docks just inside the harbour mouth.

Cloak of Laughter - Abigail Cresson

I wear a cloak of laughter
Lest anyone should see
My dress of sorrow underneath
And stop to pity me.

Christel - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

My senses ofttimes are oppress'd,

Initiation - A W Schack von Staffeldt

I sat far out on the sound’s still shore,
The skies were smiling;
And filled with longing I gazed down o’er
The waves beguiling.
The sun slipped into the sea’s embrace,
The coast and sky joined in blushing grace.

No wine for me! - Agathias Scholasticus

No wine for me! — Nay, an it be thy will,
Kiss first the goblet — I will drink my fill:

Ghazal 85 - Hafez

We couldn't taste his lips before he left.
His light-filled moon face shone no more. He left.

Your pilgrimage - Ko Un

A slower pace, a somewhat slower pace will do.
Of a sudden, should it start to rain,
let yourself get soaked.
An old friend, the rain.

Huron Carol - Jean de Brébeuf

'Twas in the moon of wintertime when all the birds had fled
That mighty Gitchi Manitou sent angel choirs instead;
Before their light the stars grew dim and wondering hunters heard the hymn,
Jesus your King is born, Jesus is born, in excelsis gloria.

I Absorbed - Celia Dropkin

I absorbed the sky,
the woods of my old home.

Now These Objects Will Move by Themselves - Hsia Yü

Every time you get to thinking this time doesn't count
Every time you come to feel this here and now isn't real
The sound of silk ripping in the air
You run inside as fast you can
Hide yourself

I Have Loved Hours at Sea - Sarah Teasdale

I have loved hours at sea, gray cities,
The fragile secret of a flower,
Music, the making of a poem
That gave me heaven for an hour;

Do not ask my love - Faiz Ahmed Faiz

Do not ask, my love, for the love we had before:
You existed, I told myself, so all existence shone,
Grief for me was you; the world?s grief was far.

The Sound of Autumn - Lưu Trọng Lư

Did you hear this season of fall
Sobbing in the dimming moonlight?
Did you hear at all the stirrings
For the image of the war knight
Of his lonely wife's strained heartstrings?

We dreamed of restoration - Bruce Levitan

We dreamed of restoration
When laughter fills our ears,
When songs of joy and praise ring out
And cancel all the tears.

Manglish - Jacinta Ramayah

We speak a language called manglish
to us it is normal,
The queen’s grammar is so precise
we’ve made it informal.

Blind Children - Israel Zangwill

Laughing, the blind boys
Run round their college lawn,
Playing such games of buff
Over its dappled grass.

The Spruce Tree - Heinrich Heine

A single spruce-tree, lonely,
On a northern mountain height,
Sleeps in a white blanket,
Draped in snow and ice.

Limits - Jorge Luis Borges

Of these streets that deepen the sunset,
There must be one (but which) that I’ve walked
Already one last time, indifferently
And without knowing it, submitting

Casabianca - Felicia Hemans

The boy stood on the burning deck
  Whence all but he had fled;
The flame that lit the battle's wreck
  Shone round him o'er the dead.

Mountain Life - Henrik Johan Ibsen

In summer dusk the valley lies
With far-flung shadow veil;
A cloud-sea laps the precipice
Before the evening gale:
The welter of the cloud-waves grey
Cuts off from keenest sight
The glacier, looking out by day
O'er all the district, far away,
And crowned with golden light.

Baby Girl Found - Francette Cerulli

He found her wrapped in a brown towel
Beside the highway department dumpster.
She was so cold she was blue, so new
her umbilical stump still drooped softly
from her belly like the limp stem
of some fantastic fruit.

Fair Summer Droops - Thomas Nashe

Fair summer droops, droop men and beasts therefore,
So fair a summer look for nevermore:
All good things vanish less than in a day,
Peace, plenty, pleasure, suddenly decay.
Go not yet away, bright soul of the sad year,
The earth is hell when thou leav'st to appear.

The Bard - Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger

O, GREAT was Denmark’s land in time of old!
  Wide to the south her branch of glory spread;
Fierce to the battle rushed her heroes bold,
  Eager to join the revels of the dead:
While the fond maiden flew with smiles to fold
  Round her returning warrior’s vesture red
Her arm of snow, with nobler passion fired,
When to the breast of love, exhausted, he retired.

Love for love (Jockey Fou and Jenny Fain) - Robert Burns

Ithers seek they ken na what,
Features, carriage, and a’ that;
Gie me love in her I court,
Love to love maks a’ the sport.

Some Beasts - Pablo Neruda

It was the twilight of the iguana.

Bessie's song to her Doll - Lewis Carroll

Matilda Jane, you never look
At any toy or picture-book.
I show you pretty things in vain—
You must be blind, Matilda Jane!

Redemption - George Herbert

Having been tenant long to a rich lord,
Not thriving, I resolved to be bold,
And make a suit unto him, to afford
A new small-rented lease, and cancel the old.

The call of the Seven Seas - Kendall Banning

I hear the call of the wanderlust,
And God knows why but go I must;
Until my bones are drifting dust
   I'll follow the sea-gull's cry.
The bow-watch song to the dog-watch bell,
The kick o' the wheel and the chantey's spell
Get hold of a man in spite o' Hell,
   And a better man than I!

Anonymous - This was our land

The land that the mountain needed in order
To raise in majesty.

Savitri, or The Sun - Anonymous

1.
Savitri! effulgent, bright!
Who fosters every pious rite,
Savitri! whose ruddy rays
Invite our holy hymns and lays,
With humble hearts we contemplate his rays,
And faintly see our God in his bright face!

Star Teachers - George William Russell

Even as a bird sprays many-coloured fires,
The plumes of paradise, the dying light
Rays through the fevered air in misty spires
That vanish in the heights.

OFF 2 Fiji : hot airports - Vinepa Aiono

DEPART
Auckland International Airport
Damn ! its hot!! my salt water skin
eats my eyeliner and rubs my lipstick
in the crowded gate room.

‘When I watch the flight of leaves' - Marina Tsvetaeva

When I watch the flight of leaves,
To the cobblestones at my feet,

The Cross - Pedro Calderón de la Barca

Tree which heaven has willed to dower
With that true fruit whence we live,
As that other death did give;

Inscription for the Ceiling of a Bedroom - Dorothy Parker

Daily dawns another day;
I must up, to make my way.

The Springlet - José Zorilla

Hasting on, the springlet flows,
Licking up its dark brown bed;
More and more its crystal grows
As its course is sped.

Moon Song - Mildred Plew Meigs

Zoon, zoon, cuddle and croon–
  Over the crinkling sea,
The moon man flings him a silvered net
  Fashioned of moonbeams three.

My Native Land - Dashdorjiin Natsagdorj

The fertile virgin-lands between Altai and Khangai
Lands of our eternal destiny where ancestors lie
Land grown mellow under the golden rays of the sun
Land grown eternal under the silver moon.

Anonymous - O Lord Remember

O Lord,
Remember not only the men and women of good will,
but also those of ill will.

Birches - Robert Frost

When I see birches bend to left and right
Across the lines of straighter darker trees,
I like to think some boy’s been swinging them.

Confession - Frantisek Halas

Touched by all that love is
I draw closer toward you
Saddened by all that love is
I run from you

The Heart and Service - Sir Thomas Wyatt

The heart and service to you proffer'd
With right good will full honestly,
Refuse it not, since it is offer'd,
But take it to you gentlely.

Ladies, who of my lord would fain be told - Gaspara Stampa

Ladies, who of my lord would fain be told,
Picture a gentle knight, full sweet to see,
Though young in years, in wisdom passing old,
Model of glory and of valiancy;

Why - Bliss Carman

For a name unknown,
Whose fame unblown
Sleeps in the hills
For ever and aye;

What Was Told, That - Jalal al-Din Rumi

What was said to the rose that made it open was said
to me here in my chest.

From Wonder World - Kate Greenaway

Out of Wonder World I think you come;
For in your eyes the wonder comes with you.

Lalila, to the Ferengi Lover - Laurence Hope

Thy above others was I so blessed
And honoured? to be the chosen one
To hold you, sleeping, against my breast,
As now I may hold your only son.

Who am I - Carl Sandburg

My head knocks against the stars.
My feet are on the hilltops.
My finger-tips are in the valleys and shores of
universal life.

High Tide at 4 A.M. - William McFee

They've tipped and they've shoveled, they've trimmed and they've stored,
And she's down to her load-line as ever;
The bridge is swung round and the pilot's aboard
And she's off to the dark o' the river.

Bitter Oranges - Kostas Karyotakis

Oh, our little orange tree
all full of flowers
and like a bride dressed
all in white

And If I Did, What Then? - George Gascoigne

"And if I did, what then?
Are you aggriev'd therefore?
The sea hath fish for every man,
And what would you have more?"

Night Chant healing ceremony - Anonymous (Navajo)

Tségihi,
House made of dawn.
House made of evening light.
House made of the dark cloud.
House made of male rain.
House made of dark mist.
House made of female rain.
House made of pollen.
House made of grasshoppers.

The Road Not Taken - Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Lantern Festival - Ouyang Xiu

At last year's Lantern Festival
The flower market was bright as day.

Table manners for children - Anomymous

In silence I must take my seat,
And give God thanks before I eat;
Must for my food in patience wait,
Till I am asked to hand my plate.

Amidst the Flowers a Jug of Wine - Li Bai

Pure wine costs, for the golden cup,
ten thousand coppers a flagon,
And a jade plate of dainty food calls for million coins.

The Wild Swans at Coole - W. B. Yeats

The trees are in their autumn beauty,
The woodland paths are dry,
Under the October twilight the water
Mirrors a still sky;
Upon the brimming water among the stones
Are nine and fifty swans.

World Was - Rainer Maria Rilke

World was in the face of the beloved –
but suddenly it poured out:
World is outside. World is not to be grasped.

Only Of Thee And Me - Louis Untermeyer

Only of thee and me the night wind sings,
 Only of us the sailors speak at sea,
The earth is filled with wondered whisperings
 Only of thee and me.

The Palace of Humbug - Lewis Carroll

I dreamt I dwelt in marble halls,
And each damp thing that creeps and crawls
Went wobble-wobble on the walls.

Before the Dawn - Federico Garcia Lorca

But like love
the archers
are blind

The Tree of Life - Robert Buchanan

The Master said:
‘I have planted the Seed of a Tree,
It shall be strangely fed
With white dew and with red,
And the Gardeners shall be three--
Regret, Hope, Memory!’

The Sea - Xuân Diệu

I don't deserve to be the ocean blue
But I want thee to be the white beach sand
The sandy beach stretching calmly its hue
Under the crystal sun.

The Tuft of Flowers - Robert Frost

I went to turn the grass once after one
Who mowed it in the dew before the sun.

The Sea-Lands - Orrick Johns

Would I were on the sea-lands,
 Where winds know how to sting;
And in the rocks at midnight
 The lost long murmurs sing.

On early Trains - Boris Pasternak

This winter I was outside Moscow,
But when the time for work came round,
Through the blizzard, biting frost and snow,
I made the journey into town.

Upon A Haystack On A Southern Night - Afanasy Afanasevich Fet

Upon a haystack in lands of South,
I lay, while facing skies of night,
The choir of stars, alive and couth,  
Was trembling, spread at every side.

Sonnet VIII: I Live, I Die, I Burn, I Drown - Louise Labé

I live, I die, I burn, I drown
I endure at once chill and cold
Life is at once too soft and too hard
I have sore troubles mingled with joys

Did I Miss Anything? - Tom Wayman

Nothing. When we realized you weren’t here
we sat with our hands folded on our desks
in silence, for the full two hours

Song of the Wild Bushman - Thomas Pringle

Let the proud White Man boast his flocks,
    And fields of foodful grain;
My home is 'mid the mountain rocks,
    The Desert my domain.
I plant no herbs nor pleasant fruits,
    I toil not for my cheer;
The Desert yields me juicy roots,
    And herds of bounding deer.

Voices of the Air - Katherine Mansfield

But then there comes that moment rare
When, for no cause that I can find,
The little voices of the air

Sea-Fever - John Masefield

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face and a grey dawn breaking.

Thule, the Period of Cosmography - Thomas Weelkes

Thule, the period of cosmography,
    Doth vaunt of Hecla, whose sulphureous fire
Doth melt the frozen clime and thaw the sky;

The East Wind Blows Over the Water (The Lover's Return) - Li Yu

The east wind blows over the water, the sun sits by the hill,
Though spring has come, the idleness persists.

Old and New - Edmund Gosse

I. B.C.

Come, Hesper, and ye Gods of mountain waters,
Come, nymphs and Dryades,
Come, silken choir of soft Pierian daughters,
And girls of lakes and seas,
Evoë! and evoë Io! crying,
Fill all the earth and air;
Evoë! till the quivering words, replying,
Shout back the echo there!

The Cow - Oliver Herford

The Cow is too well known, I fear,
To need an introduction here.

Faith - Ada Cambridge

And is the great cause lost beyond recall?
Have all the hopes of ages come to naught?

Spring - Boris Pasternak

How many sticky buds, candle ends
sprout from the branches! Steaming
April. Puberty sweats from the park,
and the forest’s blatantly gleaming.

Nurse - Abdul Ghani Khan

To serve the sick and wretched
Is not service but worship;

To Chloë (Odes, I, 23) - Horace

You shun me, Chloë, wild and shy,
As some stray fawn that seeks its mother
Through trackless woods. If spring winds sigh
It vainly strives its fears to smother.

A piper - Seamus O'Sullivan

A piper in the streets today
Set up, and tuned, and started to play,

Hands - Bruce Levitan

The hands that made the stuff of stars are
the hands that bled and were torn.
      The hands that mined the ore, or
the hands that made the nails are
the hands that held the flails.

Tomorrow - Lope de Vega

LORD, what am I, that with unceasing care
Thou did'st seek after me, that Thou did'st wait
Wet with unhealthy dews before my gate,

In the Restaurant - Claire Zu Bard

H, dark and fascinating young man,
(Sitting opposite me at the restaurant-table),
There are spots of color on your thin cheek-bones
And your eyes are deep and smoldering....
Your feverish fingers hold hopefully your glass of milk
And you eat your soft-boiled eggs with a relish.

The Infinite - Giacomo Leopardi

It was always dear to me, this solitary hill,
and this hedgerow here, that closes out my view,
from so much of the ultimate horizon.

Nature's calm - Alcman

The mountain brows, the rocks, the peaks, are sleeping,
Uplands and gorges hush!

Heart-Slopes - Rainer Maria Rilke

Out on the heart-slopes. See, how tiny down there,
See, the last village of words, and higher,

Come to me here - Sappho

Come to me here from Crete,
To this holy temple, where
Your lovely apple grove stands,
And your altars that flicker
With incense.

Within my heart I felt the sudden stir - Dante Alighieri

Within my heart I felt the sudden stir
of a loving spirit that lay sleeping:
and saw Love then, coming from afar,
so joyously that I scarcely knew him,

Lovely and Lifelike - Paul Éluard

A face at the end of the day

Paris, October 1936 - Cesar Vallejo

From all of this I am the only one who leaves.
From this bench I go away, from my pants,
from my great situation, from my actions,
from my number split side to side,
from all of this I am the only one who leaves.

Christ's Resurrection - Edmund Elys

Our LORD is Risen; and the Powerful Grave
Holds him no longer; He hath made his way
Even through the Gates of Death, that He might save
His Heav'nly Flesh from turning into Clay.
The Grave knew not whom he had taken; when
He saw who 'twas, he let Him out agen.

Easter Communion - Gerard Manley Hopkins

Pure fasted faces draw unto this feast:
God comes all sweetness to your Lenten lips.

The Chief - Domhnull mac Fhionnlaidh

Let clouds rest on the hills: spirits fly, and travellers fear.
Let the winds of the woods arise, the sounding storms descend.
Roar streams and windows flap, and green-winged meteors fly!
Rise the pale moon from behind her hills, or inclose her head in clouds!
Night is alike to me, blue, stormy, or gloomy the sky.
 Night flies before the beam, when it is poured on the hill.
The young day returns from his clouds, but we return no more.

Still falls the rain - Edith Sitwell

Still falls the Rain—
Dark as the world of man, black as our loss—
Blind as the nineteen hundred and forty nails
Upon the Cross.

Birthdays - Robert Service

Let us have birthdays every day,
(I had the thought while I was shaving)
Because a birthday should be gay,
And full of grace and good behaving.
We can't have cakes and candles bright,
And presents are beyond our giving,
But let lt us cherish with delight
The birthday way of lovely living.

Sonnet 12 - William Shakespeare

When I do count the clock that tells the time,

Symbols - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Palm Sunday at the Vatican

Farewell To Arras - Adam De La Halle

Arras! Arras! town full of strife,
With calumnies and hatred rife;
You were a noble town of yore;
Your fame, 'tis said, they will restore.
But unless God your manners mend,
I see not who'll effect this end;
Gambling is all that you pursue,
So, fifty thousand times adieu.

The Gardener XIX: You Walked - Rabindranath Tagore

You walked by the riverside path
with the full pitcher upon your hip.
Why did you swiftly turn your face
and peep at me through your fluttering
veil?

Ghazal - Faiz Ahmed Faiz

I am being accused of loving you, that is all
It is not an insult, but a praise, that is all

Two Lovers - George Eliot

Two lovers by a moss-grown spring:
They leaned soft cheeks together there,
Mingled the dark and sunny hair,
And heard the wooing thrushes sing.
O budding time!
O love's blest prime!

Railway Station - Boris Pasternak

My dear railway station, my treasure
Of meetings and partings, my friend
In times of hard trials and pleasure,
Your favours have been without end.

Spring - John Gould Fletcher

At the first hour, it was as if one said, “Arise.”
At the second hour, it was as if one said, “Go forth.”
And the winter constellations that are like patient ox-eyes
Sank below the white horizon at the north.

Aubade - Edith Sitwell

Jane, Jane,
Tall as a crane,
The morning light creaks down again;

Sonnet I - Mary Wroth

In this strange Labyrinth how shall I turne,
Wayes are on all sides while the way I misse:

Fertile Eyes - Paul Éluard

Fertile Eyes
No one can know me more
More than you know me

Ballad of the Moon - Federico Garcia Lorca

The moon came to the forge
wearing a bustle of Spikenards.

The Panther - Rainer Maria Rilke

His gaze has been so worn by the procession
Of bars that it no longer makes a bond.
Around, a thousand bars seem to be flashing,
And in their flashing show no world beyond.

The Mother - Robert Service

There will be a singing in your heart,
There will be a rapture in your eyes;
You will be a woman set apart,
You will be so wonderful and wise.
You will sleep, and when from dreams you start,
As of one that wakes in Paradise,
There will be a singing in your heart,
There will be a rapture in your eyes.

Down Zhonghan Mountain to the Pillow and Bowl of Husi - Li Bai

Down the blue mountain in the evening,
Moonlight was my homeward escort.

Moonlight in the Forest - Aaro Hellakoski

Under sleepy branches
a strange light shines,

How Noisy They Seem - Alootook Ipellie

I saw a picture today, in the pages of a book.
It spoke of many memories of when I was still a child:
Snow covered the ground,
And the rocky hills were cold and gray with frost.
The sun was shining from the west,
And the shadows were dark against the whiteness of the hardened snow.

Song of the Pines - Po Chü-i

I like sitting alone when the moon is shining,
And there are two pines standing before the verandah;

On Two Ministers of State - Hilaire Belloc

Lump says that Caliban's of gutter breed,

To The Young - Adam Asnyk

The brightening flame of truth pursue,
Seek to discover ways no human knows.
With every secret now revealed to you,
The soul of man expands within the new.
And God still bigger grows!

The Fir-Tree and the Brook - Helen Hunt Jackson

The Fir-Tree looked on stars, but loved the Brook!
"O silver-voiced! if thou wouldst wait,
My love can bravely woo." All smiles forsook
The brook's white face. "Too late!
Too late! I go to wed the sea.
I know not if my love would curse or bless thee.
I may not, dare not, tarry to caress thee,
Oh, do not follow me!

Brown Penny - William Butler Yeats

I whispered, 'I am too young,'
And then, 'I am old enough';
Wherefore I threw a penny
To find out if I might love.
'Go and love, go and love, young man,
If the lady be young and fair.'
Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny,
I am looped in the loops of her hair.

In a V A D Pantry - Alberta Vickridge

In a V A D Pantry
Pots in piles of blue and white,
Old in service, cracked and chipped—
While the bare-armed girls tonight
Rinse and dry, with trivial-lipped
Mirth, and jests, and giggling chatter,
In this maze of curls and clatter
Is there no one sees in you
More than common white and blue?

Who is the Enemy - Ali Sardar Jafri

You were slaves till yesterday, so were we.

Sophia's Fools-Cap - Adelaide O Keeffe

Sophia was a little child,
Obliging, good, and very mild,
Yet lest of dress she should be vain,
Mamma still dress'd her well, but plain.
Her parents, sensible and kind,
Wish'd only to adorn her mind;
No other dress, when good, had she,
But useful, neat simplicity.

Poem Of Alienation - Antonio Jacinto

This is not yet my poem
the poem of my soul and of my blood
no
I still lack knowledge and power to write my poem
the great poem I feel already turning in me

A Child’s Prayer - Matilda B. Edwards

God make my life a little light,
    Within the world to glow,—
A tiny flame that burneth bright,
    Wherever I may go.

We Are Going - Oodgeroo Noonuccal

They came in to the little town
A semi-naked band subdued and silent
All that remained of their tribe.

The times are nightfall, look, their light grows less - Gerard Manley Hopkins

The times are nightfall, look, their light grows less;
The times are winter, watch, a world undone:

A Simile - Matthew Prior

Dear Thomas, didst thou never pop
Thy head into a tin-man's shop?
There, Thomas, didst thou never see
('Tis but by way of simile)
A squirrel spend his little rage
In jumping round a rolling cage?
The cage, as either side turn'd up,
Striking a ring of bells a-top?—

Waltzing Matilda - A B Banjo Paterson

Oh there once was a swagman camped in the billabong,
    Under the shade of a Coolabah tree;
And he sang as he looked at his old billy boiling
    "Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me."

On A Journey - Hermann Hesse

Don't be downcast, soon the night will come,
When we can see the cool moon laughing in secret
Over the faint countryside,
And we rest, hand in hand.

Burnt Ships - Henrik Johan Ibsen

To skies that were brighter
Turned he his prows;
To gods that were lighter
Made he his vows.

At The Smithville Methodist Church - Stephen Dunn

It was supposed to be Arts & Crafts for a week,
but when she came home
with the "Jesus Saves" button, we knew what art
was up, what ancient craft.

Dawn - Yosa Buson

Dawn —
fish the cormorants haven't caught
swimming in the shallows.

---

Yosa Buson (1716 - 1784) Japan

I Am From There - Mahmoud Darwish

I am from there and I have memories. Like any other

Man I was born. I have a mother,

A house with several windows, friends and brothers.

African Writings - Godfrey Mutiso Gorry

If you meet literature from Africa
Or even their mentors

Alabaster - Sarojini Naidu

Like this alabaster box whose art
Is frail as a cassia-flower, is my heart,

Where the Sidewalk Ends - Shel Silverstein

There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Just so — Jesus — raps - Emily Dickinson

Just so — Jesus — raps —
He — doesn't weary —
Last — at the Knocker —
And first — at the Bell.
Then — on divinest tiptoe — standing —
Might He but spy the lady's soul —
When He — retires —
Chilled — or weary —
It will be ample time for — me —
Patient — upon the steps — until then —
Hears! I am knocking — low at thee.

---

Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886) USA

He stepped inside my door - Eeva Kilpi

Let me know right away
if I'm disturbing you.
he said

Sing Me A Song - John O'Brien

Sing me a song with the ring of truth in it,
Sing me a song with the freshness of youth in it.
Chant me a paean of joy;

The Smith - Johann Ludwig Uhland

I hear my sweetheart,
The hammer he swings,

I Want to Grasp The - Xuân Diệu

Life has just begun to burst forth.

A Lament For Flodden - Jane Elliot

I’ve heard them lilting at our ewe-milking,
   Lasses a’ lilting before dawn o’ day;
But now they are moaning on ilka green loaning—
   The Flowers of the Forest are a’ wede away.

The King - J.R.R. Tolkien

The King beneath the mountains,
The King of carven stone,
The lord of silver fountains,
Shall come into his own!

Dixie's Land - Daniel Decatur Emmett

   I wish I was in de land ob cotton,
   Old times dar am not forgotten;
        Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land!

A young girl - Albert Ferland

How sweet and beautiful to be young,
Where the soul retains its openness,
Where, fearing no storm is sprung
We know only happiness!

I'm Nobody! Who are you? - Emily Dickinson

I'm Nobody! Who are you?

Endless Time - Rabindranath Tagore

Time is endless in thy hands, my Lord.
There is none to count thy minutes.

At the Theatre: To the Lady Behind Me - A.P. Herbert

Dear Madam, you have seen this play;
I never saw it till today.

Black Marigolds (Chauraspanchasika) - Bilhana Kavi

Even now
My thought is all of this gold-tinted king's daughter
With garlands tissue and golden buds,
Smoke tangles of her hair, and sleeping or waking
Feet trembling in love, full of pale languor;
My thought is clinging as to a lost learning
Slipped down out of the minds of men,
Labouring to bring her back into my soul.

Forest - Nikolai Stepanovich Gumilev

In that magic forest, towering trees
Unexpectedly come forward from the haze.

Like the very gods - Sappho

Like the very gods in my sight is he who
sits where he can look in your eyes, who listens
close to you, to hear the soft voice, its sweetness
          murmur in love and

A Memory - Barcroft Henry Boake

Adown the grass-grown paths we strayed,
                              The evening cowslips ope’d
Their yellow eyes to look at her,
                              The love-sick lilies moped
With envy that she rather chose
To take a creamy-petalled rose
And lean it 'gainst her ebon hair,
All in that garden fair.

Have You An Eye - Edwin Ford Piper

Have you an eye for the trails, the trails,
    The old mark and the new?
What scurried here, what loitered there,
    In the dust and in the dew?

Indian Summer - Isabel Ecclestone Mackay

I have strayed from silent places,
Where the days are dreaming always;

The Alice Jean - Robert Graves

One moonlit night a ship drove in,
    A ghost ship from the west,
Drifting with bare mast and lone tiller,
    Like a mermaid drest
In long green weed and barnacles:
    She beached and came to rest.

All the watchers of the coast
    Flocked to view the sight,
Men and women streaming down
    Through the summer night,
Found her standing tall and ragged
    Beached in the moonlight.

Then one old woman looked and wept
    “The ‘Alice Jean’? But no!
The ship that took my Dick from me
    Sixty years ago
Drifted back from the utmost west
    With the ocean’s flow?

“Caught and caged in the weedy pool
    Beyond the western brink,
Where crewless vessels lie and rot
    in waters black as ink.
Torn out again by a sudden storm
    Is it the ‘Jean’, you think?”

A hundred women stared agape,
    The menfolk nudged and laughed,
But none could find a likelier story
    For the strange craft.
With fear and death and desolation
    Rigged fore and aft.

The blind ship came forgotten home
    To all but one of these
Of whom none dared to climb aboard her:
    And by and by the breeze
Sprang to a storm and the “Alice Jean”
    Foundered in frothy seas.

---

Robert Graves (1895 – 1985) England

A Red, Red Rose - Robert Burns

O my luve's like a red, red rose,
    That's newly sprung in June;
O my luve's like the melodie
    That's sweetly played in tune.

A Psalm Of Life - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
    Life is but an empty dream! —
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
    And things are not what they seem.

Penelope - Dorothy Parker

In the pathway of the sun,

Ghazal - Muhammad din Tilai

The world is fainting,
And you will weep at last.

We Wear the Mask - Paul Laurence Dunbar

We wear the mask that grins and lies,

Mirabeau Bridge - Guillaume Apollinaire

Under Mirabeau bridge runs the Seine

The Rose That Grew From Concrete - Tupac Shakur

Did you hear about the rose that grew
from a crack in the concrete?

Sonnet - C. S. Lewis

The stars come out; the fragrant shadows fall
About a dreaming garden still and sweet

The Train Of Life - Edmund William Gosse

We traced the bleak ridge, to and fro,
Grave forty, gay fourteen;
While yellow larks, in heaven's blue glow,
Like laughing stars were seen,
And rose-tipp'd larches, fringed below,
Shone fabulously green.

My Idle Dreams Roam Far (Gazing at the South) - Li Yu

My idle dreams roam far,

Crossing the bar - Alfred Lord Tennyson

Sunset and evening star,
   And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
   When I put out to sea,

Ozymandias - Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away."

---

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822) England

Johnny Fife and Johnny's Wife - Mildred Plew Meigs

Oh, Johnny Fife and Johnny's wife
To save their toes and heels,
They built themselves a little house
That ran on rolling wheels.

The Cats Have Come To Tea - Kate Greenaway

What did she see–oh, what did she see,
As she stood leaning against the tree?
Why all the Cats had come to tea.

Water Fantasy - Fannie Stearns Davis

O brown brook, O blithe brook, what will you say to me
If I take off my heavy shoon and wade you childishly?

The Girl - Boris Pasternak

                                            By a cliff a golden cloud once lingered;
                                            On his breast it slept...

Everybody Tells Me Everything - Ogden Nash

I find it very difficult to enthuse
Over the current news.

Winter Song - Wilfred Owen

The browns, the olives, and the yellows died,
And were swept up to heaven;

One Flower - Jack Kerouac

One flower
     on the cliffside
Nodding at the canyon

---

Jack Kerouac (1922 – 1969) USA

Gentle Lady, Do Not Sing - James Joyce

XXVIII

Gentle lady, do not sing

Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind - William Shakespeare

Blow, blow, thou winter wind,

Entreaty - Abdul Ghani Khan

I do not need your red sculpted lips,

I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark, Not Day - Gerard Manley Hopkins

I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day.

The Darkling Thrush - Thomas Hardy

I leant upon a coppice gate
      When Frost was spectre-grey,
And Winter's dregs made desolate
      The weakening eye of day.